Hey guys, big news today.

My Top Secret Seasonal Salad recipe was chosen as one of the 20 top recipes for potluck dishes by New York Times and food52 editors, Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs.

Woooohhooooo!

In October 2008, only 4 months after I started writing this blog, I posted a recipe for Top Secret Orange Marmalade Salad after meeting a woman at a conference who told me she doesn’t know how to make a vinaigrette. This salad, and its vinaigrette, is my “house” salad, my signature dish, and therefore I thought it is the recipe I should submit to the magazine.

I wanted to share it in the New York Times but did not want to send this old photo,

So I took newer, better photos than that one from 2 years ago (and rewrote the recipe to be more accurate with directions and quantities),

I hope you make and enjoy this salad as much as we do.

Click here to grab my recipe .

Click here to see the top 20 chosen recipes.

Back in January 2009 I posted a recipe for Rugelach, my favorite cookie! I still cannot understand how cream cheese, that brick of gooey, plastic-y cheese I do not like eating turns cheesecakes and cookies into sublime desserts I adore… But, anyway, this post is about photography. Those were the photos I took back then:

Last Friday I baked Rugelach again. I was actually a bit worried how they will turn out because my mind was wondering and I didn’t focus on what I was doing and used a whole egg when I should have used only the egg yolk. The dough was more wet and sticky than my fingers remembered but it took me a while to realized the reason why. After being baked, they turned out a bit flatter but just as good as I remembered. They are still my #1 on the cookie list.

And these are the current photos:

So, what different?

I think the big difference is due to the camera (Canon Rebel XS) and the lens (recently, I mostly use a 60 mm).

I am also using a tripod again

I think I did learn how to “see” but I still don’t fuss too much with styling. I rarely use a prop other then a fork, and occasionally a knife. I bought some props in the past year but I haven’t used them much. As much is it can be a lot of fun, I just don’t have the time to play for too long. So I’m still stuck with putting the food on the plate and trying to find the best angle.

I now limit most of my posts to those where I can shoot during day time or on evenings when there is still some natural light. I haven’t used artificial lights since I bought my camera and learned how to use the aperture mode (Only lately I learned about Manual mode).

I know, I know, I should pay more attention to reflection on the plate, like in this photo below:

… still haven’t replaced the red sheers with white ones nor did I tape more paper on the windows. I can be lazy sometimes…

What’s next? Recently I became fascinated with darker photos, with more black and other dramatic colors.

I would like to experiment more with black, like in this photo:

Need to buy black reflector/card board…

Hey, you have noticed it’s been a while since I’ve posted a cake, right?! I’m really truly sorry about that. Cake means a lot to me. Cake is family and a home. I hope that by now it means a little to you too. If not a lot.

Maybe it’s time to bring the cake collection back to life. What is “the cake collection”? You can submit a recipe and photo/guest post a cake you made and get some link love. It can even be one that you have already posted on your blog. There’s nothing to lose, only win! Click here for more info. I’d love to see your cakes and it’ll be chance for me and the blog readers to get to know YOU.

So, without further delays… here it is… Ina Garten’s Honey Vanilla Pound Cake recipe. The recipe is from her “back to basics” cookbook. I will tell you more about it soon as I’ve been cooking my way through the book this week. It has lots of wonderful recipes. This is how I stumbled upon this cake which had a gorgeous of honey-sunnycolored cake.

It took 15 minutes to make!

A little note about the photography. Ever since this workshop I stopped using my tripod. Since Penny said she does not use one, which was music to my ears, I quit using mine. BUT, I guess my hands are not as stable as hers and I notice the recent photos are not so sharp. For example, the top photo was shot using a tripod and the one below was not. The last one, at the bottom of the post was shot with a tripod. You can see the difference? I can too. So from now on, I’m back to using it.

I really dislike, to say it gently, using the tripod. I feel it limits my freedom to move and shoot from different angles freely and quickly. I especially hate that mine is very inconvenient to shoot a lengthwise photo since it lacks that axis that moves the camera in different angles. I wasn’t aware of that when I bought it. So there’s a tip for you. Remember this when you buy yours! Mine only moves 2 ways; left-right and up-down, but when the camera is set lengthwise for a photo like the top one, it’s a pain to work with. Aarggggh. But as I can clearly see the difference in sharpness and quality, I admit, it is much better with a tripod.

Honey vanilla pound cake

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at cool room temperature
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 cups sifted cake flour*
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 F degrees (180°C.) Grease the bottom of an 8½ x 4½ x 2½ inch loaf pan and line the bottom with parchment paper.

In an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed for 3-4 minutes, until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl, put the eggs, honey, vanilla and lemon zest but do not combine. With the mixer on medium low speed, add the egg mixture, one egg at a time, allowing each egg to become incorporated and scraping the bowl with a spatula before adding the next one.

Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder. With the mixer on low speed, add it slowly to the batter until just combined.

Finish mixing the batter with a spatula and pour it into the prepared pan. Smooth the top.

Bake for 50-60 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes, turn out onto a baking rack, and cool completely.

* For cake flour substitute, click here.

Note the photography. I think I got better this year and soon I will share with you more Food photography posts and what I learned…. Meanwhile, I have found 2 useful posts, one about controlling the light and the other with general tips.

Also, don’t forget, the cookie scoop giveaway ends tomorrow and a winner will be announced shortly after.

Here’s my 2009 sweet recipes round up:

January: Rugelach are one of my absolute favorite cookies, way up there in the top 5. I love the cream cheese in the dough and the endless filling combinations. It’s a little bit of work rolling each cookie but worth every little crumb. I feel like a cookie monster when I make these. No sharing.

February: Ahhh, so hard to choose between Chocolate-Halva Babka Cake and Mini Cognac-Soaked Chocolate Cakes. I really can’t. Which one would you choose? A yeast cake that makes the house smell so good or a grown up cake that you can’t drive after eating 3 pieces of it?

March: It has to be Marjolaine Cake! Really really really one of the best! Certainly at the top 5 on my cake list!

April: Ricotta Bundt Cheesecake. Easy to make, with light texture and a hint of lemon goodness.That is the essence of home baking to me.

May: A little kid had a birthday and I made him this Dirt cake. He really thought it was dirt for real and refused to eat it… even after he saw all of us eating it. But we encouraged him to change his mind.

June: chocolate cake! Need I say more? Simple and easy, and yum-yummy!

July was a one year birthday for my blog!!! I celebrated it with the most amazing Summer Berry Cheesecake. Did I hear you say “oh, my goodness”!”? You can say that again…

August: This luscious, coconut oie with vanilla custard and lot’s of whipped cream makes the Triple coconut cream pie Seattle’s most famous dessert. It looks fancy but is pretty easy to make. See an even easier version on Giyen’s blog, Bacon is my enemy.

September: No cake. I wasn’t in the mood. But later on I made this easy and comforting Chocolate-vanilla tea biscuits bars which reminds me of a simple cream cake I had in my childhood over at my aunt’s house. I put mine on a plate I took from my father’s kitchen cabinet when I helped clean up his house.

October: I loved this Pumpkin banana cream pie so much that I’m gonna show off with two photos!

November: Figaro bars a recipe from my mother-in-law with a pinch of cardamom…

December: Dried cranberries and almond jumbles in a typical Seattle sunset blue light…

Happy and sweet New Year to you!

Virtual hugs,

Nurit

I thought I won’t, but I surrender… Here are my favorite savory recipes from last year.

Notice the quality of the food photography. I think I got a little better this year. Sweet recipe summary will come soon, in case you wondered, or was worried…

*** Reminders: Guest posting: want to guest post on my blog or want me to guest post for you? Also, a cookie scoop giveaway. Details here. ***

January: Young Onion Tart with Cantal, Applewood-Smoked Bacon was amazing! And amazingly simple to make! Look at it as an upscale pizza, if you must. I urge you to make it.

February: Sweet and Smoky pork chops, I made these so many times this year! De-lish.

March: Roasted potato leek soup and my first scary to publish post about a dream I had and wanted to share (Ahem, last week I dreamt that I was on the Oprah show talking about my book. Ha! But you can never know…. right?!)

April: Chicken Liver with Cinnamon and Apples, a real good choice of recipe for a tight budget (it was Hunger Challenge week) + a big flavor. Trust me.

May: Spaghetti with Carbonara, quick, easy, and luscious

June: A few recipes for easy grilled salmon because I had too.

July: Crispy chicken legs became a new favorite in our home

August was a rough month. No recipe. But in September I dedicated a recipe to my father who has passed away in August. How to make Shakshuka?

So I get to choose another recipe for September. It’s hard to choose between Foraged wild mushrooms soup or Israeli couscous with fresh veggies salad but I choose the second ‘cos it has pretty photos of my cute little one.

October: Chicken soup doesn’t need introduction…

November: I had a meatball attack. A total craving for meatballs, but my favorites were from my first Asian cookbook. Check out the Steamy sweet and sour pork meatballs

December: Minestrone soup, ending the year with a comforting soup.

Looking back at all of this makes me realize how much I love blogging!

Happy New year to everyone!~

Nurit

Simone is a professional photographer who wants to become a food photographer. She has culinary customers but she still photographs weddings, portraits, product etc. She gives food photography workshops for beginners and food bloggers in Holland, where she lives. She says “That is great fun and people are always amazed at what they can do with their point and shoot that they never knew about!” She also writes the beautiful food blog Junglefrog cooking, a blog about cooking, travel, and photography.

A lot of people ask me what kind of camera they should be buying to take good food photos. While that might sound like a simple question, it is not! Of course I can all tell you to buy the most expensive digital SLR but I am sure that is not the answer you’re looking for.. I am by no means an expert on the topic so I can only tell you my findings and opinion. Feel free to use it or not!

When writing this post I started out with explaining all the differences and then going into the technical details way too much; I mean if you’re not that into photography you might not know what aperture does or white balance so I was explaining it all, which lead to be a totally different post than the one I wanted to write! So starting all over; if you are looking for a new camera ask yourself first:

* Where are you going to use it for?

* Do you mind carrying around heavy and clumsy cameras or are you more comfortable in having a pocket sized camera?

* How technical do you want to get?

* How serious are you about becoming a good photographer? Do you merely want to take nice photos for your blog or do you really want it to stand out from the average?

* What is your budget? (A compact doesn’t necessarily have to be cheaper then an SLR, but keep in mind that you will need at least one lens to be able to operate the SLR)

There are many differences between an SLR and a compact camera but the main ones can be boiled down to the below list:

1. An SLR has a larger sensor than a compact camera resulting in sharper and better quality images; again; if you only use photos at web size for your blog this might not make a huge difference to you.

2. Possibility to change the aperture value and in general more options to change the settings on the camera. If you don’t want to do that, stick to the compact. It would be a shame buying a SLR and then not using the possibilities. On the other hand; it will still give you superior quality results.

3. With an SLR you can achieve a shallower DOF (depth of field) then with a compact. If you like the effect of a blurry background then that is easier to achieve with a SLR then with a compact. This is due to the size of the sensor and the general build of a compact. (You can see the difference between both type of camera’s in the below photo. Both taken with an aperture of 2.8. Dramatic difference in the visibility of the background!!)

SLR versus compact

4. Noise levels; current day SLR’s are better capable of handling low light level and high iso then a compact camera. Part of this is due to the race for more pixels. Nowadays it seems that everyone beliefs that more pixels equals better photos, but that – sadly – is not necessarily true. Sure if I need to shoot something for a billboard then I would need to have as any pixels as I can get, but if I am only going to use my camera for everyday usage why would you need 12 megapixel cameras? On compact cameras an overdose of pixels also creates more noise, especially visible when you shoot on high iso. But even on low iso, the noise levels in a compact will be higher then on a SLR. The example below is not entirely fair since I took the shot from my compact without a tripod so it is a little bit more blurry then the SLR one, but you get the general feel of the smoothness (and color handling!!) of a SLR vs. compact.

The one taken with the SLR is bright and clear, colors are accurate and overall the image looks very smooth. The one taken with my compact on the other hand looks a bit drab in regards to color and you can see that it is more noisy then the other one. The compact one would probably benefit from a little exposure adjustment.

In the end it is still true that a good photo is taken by the photographer and not by the camera, but having good tools does help you achieve the best results. A compact camera will work very well when shooting in bright and clear conditions. When we go on holiday I use it all the time as I don’t want to carry around my heavy SLR and if the weather is good and I do not have to use flash the results are brilliant as you can see from the examples below.

However; in lower light conditions or indoors, the SLR beats the compact every time. That can be partially solved by getting good lights to light your indoors scene or moving the dish outdoors to take advantage of the light if it is not at night…

There are many more arguments for buying either a SLR or a compact, but without getting too technical these are the main differences in my opinion. It’s up to you to make the final call!

Canon Powershot D10 (yes, it’s an underwater camera too!!)

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Thank you Simone for this post!

For more tips and recipes, visit her blog: www.junglefrog-cooking.com

Gorgeous, luscious, creamy and light Trophy cupcakes, in bite size – dangerously good – were served at today’s food photography workshop.

I still feel “high” after participating in this workshop with food photographer Penny De Los Santos (her web site: www.pennydelossantos.com, her blog, and @pennydelosantos on Twitter.)

The workshop was organized by Viv, a.k.a Seattle Bon Vivant at the beautiful Spring Hill restaurant in West Seattle. The food was gorgeous and amazingly delicious, as you will see in the photos.

A few notes from the workshop:

To make a good food photography, Penny says to pay attention to: light, color, composition, the food subject, and making appetizing food.

She shoots “organic” meaning the food has to be fresh and of good quality in order to be photographed well. She works only with real food, with no glue or sprays to make it look pretty, no tricks they use in commercial food photography. This means that you can eat the food after it’s been shot. Also, she says she works quickly, not using a tripod but instead focusing on working the camera settings so it works fast, and working only in natural light. It doesn’t mean that she photographs only during day time, but even at night she doesn’t use artificial lighting. Not even a light box. her favorite lens is a 24-105 F4 Canon with a zoom although she said she is not a “zoomer”.

Angles to shoot from: overhead, 3/4 angle, and side view. The 3/4 angle and side view are better when shooting “tall” food, like the salad below which was our first assignment.

I like these two photos below as well, shot overhead. Maybe I just got attached to the salad… It was a simply deliciously done with crunchy lettuce and radishes, and I tasted tarragon in the dressing  which I love. )I should remember to use some tarragon in my salads.)

For our second assignment we had new dishes brought. It was the first time I practiced taking photos in a full manual mode, everything has to be adjusted including the lens focus (versus the aperture setting I usually use with auto focus of the lens.)

The third assignment was to edit the food, to interfere with what’s on the plate, to shoot food being made (everyone immediately had a good excuse to get focused on the chefs at work), or to use props.

Here’s a plate full of goodies, a bit out of focus…but still beautiful, because the food is beautiful! The duck was perfectly cooked, the persimmon was sweet addition, and I am terribly curious to know what they put in those shaved Brussels sprouts!

All the participants got their hands busy busy busy. So much enthusiasm was in the room.

Peoples got in each other’s frames at times…

But overall helped each other

  And got on their hands and knees

As well as all around the chefs in the kitchen.

Ah, so much fun.

I know where we’re going on our next date night…

In this post I’d like to share with you how I’m learning to work out the light when I take photos. I usually shoot in my kitchen where I have a big window but the walls are painted green – which is lovely but not necessarily a good thing for shooting food – during the day or in the evening right before we have dinner (more about shooting at night later). The second place where I like to work is in the dining room where I took out one of my big table’s panels and set it as a small table – I love it! It has a beautiful color and texture that works well with the warm mood I’m trying to show in my photos.

Shooting by the window is good – there’s lots of light – but it is challenging too – too much exposure which makes the photos look “burnt”. This is why I tried a trick I learned from Lara’s Still Life With… blog post where she wrote about “The Joys of Tissue Paper. She uses it “to modify light. Although my windows in my studio are usually covered with vellum, sometimes it’s still not enough to tone down the light and minimize hot spots.”

For the Pumpkin banana creamy dreamy dessert and Pumpkin banana cream pie I wanted to use the gorgeous table with its beautiful texture that I put by the window. The problems:

1. I have red sheers hanging (which are a pain to take down), and while they are beautiful for the dining area, they reflect red light on the dishes and plates – not good.

2. There’s too much bright light coming out of the window which causes, a) loss of details/hot spots/”burnt” areas in the photos and, b) you can’t see the pretty texture of the surface which I’d like to show as part of the photo, and c) the neighbor’s house is painted grey and I think it reflects grey light back on my food.

For example, in this photo, you can see that the table’s surface looks whitish and not the warm dark brown color that is has. Also, in the first dessert glass, on the top right side, the whipped cream is too white=burnt=you don’t see the soft pillowy details of the cream. This is the result of too much light hitting that spot.

Next, in this photo you can see the table and its texture better, but the whipped cream is over exposed, too white, no details, no pillows of whipped cream goodness.

And in this photo, it’s obvious that there is too much light coming from the right side.

Taping additional tissue paper a little higher on the right side window helped control the light a little more. But here I see that I should have taped a tissue on the back window as well.

From a higher angle there is less “glare” and you can see more but not all the detail on the whipped cream and the table still looks whitish.

This is a little better… All the colors and details are in there and they look natural. Yummy, right?!

Do you like shooting food on a bias? As long as that was what you wanted, that’s fine, but this happened by mistake. I didn’t mean it to look like that. I think that if you mean it to be on an angle, the angle should be a bit larger then in this photo below, otherwise it looks accidental and not intentional. (Plus, there’s still too much light coming from the right side and hitting the cream.)

Now here you can see more whipped cream fluffy detail. I fixed the brightness and color a bit with a software I’m using but even the “after” photo is still a bit too dark. ‘Cause of the neighbor’s grey house?

before

after

Here the bottom of the glass is cut. That was unintentional plus, again, it’s not straight, but only a little angle which makes it look like something that happened by mistake and was not planned. I don’t like it.

Here the spoon is too big. I used a plastic one because I thought it would look more “airy” but ended with “scary”.

I took about 50 photos of this dessert! (Not including photos of the whole pie, a sliced pie, and 3 martini glasses.) I really should have invested more time in fixing and taping the tissue paper on all windows instead of wasting so much time trying to find the right angle that will capture the light right and show what I wanted to show.

So, my 2 favorite photos ended up being this one where the teaspoon is a smaller one, and  sank right into the bottom of the glass – this was not what I planned… but it was a good mistake – cutting through the layers of custard and thick whipped cream. I love it! It makes me want to dive right in there… head first…

And this one (although I wish I had taped tissue paper on the back window)

… and this one too…

What tips or struggles do you have to share when trying to get the light right?

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My conclusions:

1. Get rid of the red sheers (the sooner is better!) and replace them with white ones.

2. Tape more tissue all over the windows, or as needed. Save all those tissue paper wrapped gifts you’re giving or receiving this holiday!

3. Don’t waste time or taking million photos. Stop and fix the light as needed instead.

4. More food photography tips here.

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I confess to knowing almost nothing about photography. The technical terms are meaningless to me, and using my camera and lenses has been a matter of trial an error. I’m much more interested in the visual aspect of photography and the subject matter of most of my photos (food). Sure, I’ve read my manual and I’ve experimented with settings to find what works for me in my house with the existing lighting, and that’s as far as my education in photography has gone. I use only available light. I don’t own any professional lights or discs for bouncing light or any other equipment other than a tripod which is extremely useful. I take that back, I have one piece of very fancy equipment that I use regularly. It’s a 79 cent piece of white poster board (what I referred to in a previous post as a “reflector” – Nurit). I place it on my dining table to create a white background for some photos. As I’ve said before, when it comes to photography, I wing it.

I shoot a lot of photos of each dish from several angles. Basically, I just keep trying new angles by turning the plate and adjusting the tripod until I feel like I have a few shots that are possibly worth using. Speaking of trying different angles, I can’t say enough about just continuing to shoot, turn, adjust and shoot again. I’m always surprised at how something looks in the photo compared to what I see standing above it. Then, it’s all about post-processing, and that’s an area where I’m much more comfortable.

In the past, I rushed to complete posts and didn’t do much work in Photoshop other than cropping and sizing, but I later realized that correcting the white balance takes very little time and makes a huge difference. I’ve adjusted my camera settings to get the best results I can despite the fact that the rooms in which I shoot are filled with dark colors. All other color adjustments take place in Photoshop. For example in the past, when I didn’t correct the white balance, white plates looked not quite white as seen in this photo with the paprika palmiers. Also, in that photo, the shadows are a little too dark.

A more recent example in which I did adjust the white balance is the linguine with frenched green beans. The plate looks white as it should. Of course, there’s always some additional reflected color in the plate, and some shadows give nice depth, but I’ve been trying harder lately to keep whites bright and shadows less harsh.

Another visual aspect of photos that I think is important is cropping. I enjoy taking very close shots that show texture, and I sometimes crop in on the photo to allow the sized, final image to show as much detail as possible. Other times, cropping is useful for centering or intentionally off-centering the plate depending on how the photo was taken. With the persimmon flan, I cropped in the photo to make the subject matter as large as possible in the final sized image. (Photos shown before and after cropping.)

With the beet salad, I cropped to center the salad in the photo and keep it as large as possible. (Photos shown before and after cropping.)

I’ve mentioned final, sized photos and thought I should explain what I mean by that. For my blog, my content area is sized at 500 pixels wide, and that’s the width to which I size my photos. After fixing colors, white balance, and cropping, I size all my photos down to 500 pixels wide by whatever height is proportional at 72 dpi. So my close-up crops are all about showing as much as I can within those 500 pixels.

I realize I should probably take the time to learn something about all that technical stuff about photography, and I probably will at some point. For now though, I have fun figuring it out as I go and relying on Photoshop.

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My questions for Lisa:

How many photos do you take for each dish?

I take about 4-10 photos during prep, and then the plated shots may number from 10-20. Depends on the dish and if I take some shots in a pan vs on a plate, etc.

What is your “available light”? Can you explain more about “the rooms in which I shoot are filled with dark colors”?

Available light just means that I don’t set up any spotlights or flashes. My kitchen is painted a medium blue color, and my dining room is dark red with a dark wood table, and those are the rooms where I take all my food photos.

What time of the day do you usually shoot?

A lot of my photos are taken at night–right before dinner. Occasionally, I take photos during the afternoon if I’ve baked cookies or something that’s not been made for dinner.

Do you use a point and shoot or DSLR? What lenses do you use?

I use a Canon Rebel XSi with an 18-55mm lens and a Sigma 50mm macro lens.

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If you would like to guest post about your food photography, contact me via this e-mail nurit AT familyfriendlyfood DOT com

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Every now and then I run into a blog post with helpful tips abut food photography. Unfortunately, I don’t always have time to read them, so I thought it’ll be a good idea to compile them in one place and when I have a moment There will be this one place where I can quickly get to these resources. I hope you will enjoy it too.

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By the way, if you would like to guest post about your food photography experience or tips, contact me. You don’t have to be an expert and you might even think that you suck! That’s OK, the whole point is to learn what works and what doesn’t.

The posts are aimed to beginner level, so send me an e-mail to nurit AT family friendly food DOT com, Thanks!

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Also, if you ran into a good post about this topic, let me know by adding a comment below and I will add it to the links’ list. Let’s show these people who are generous and share their knowledge with others some link love. Thanks!

Food photography:

A newly discovered blog, Simone’s Junglefrog cooking has a category devoted to Photography

White on rice couple – photography tips

Still life with…

Wrightfood blog, here and here

Simply recipes, here

David Lebovitz, here

Brown eyed baker, Food Photography 101: The Basics

Learn food photography and food styling blog, click here

General digital photography:

The pioneer woman – photography

Digital Photography Tips for Beginners

Add your link or a link to a post you found in the comments section below. I’ll get it up here.